Keeping Fish in Fuge

u418936

New member
I have a 25g refugium attached to my main system. It has chaeto and a 5" sand bed. I prune the chaeto every week, so there's plenty of swimming room in the fuge. Two weeks ago, I put 5 cardinals in the fuge, and they've all been dying. The snails in the fuge aren't dying, and the fish in my main system are all doing fine. Does anyone have any idea what's going on?

The only thing I can think of is maybe there's not enough oxygen in the water. The turnover in the fuge is very low, and there's nothing that disturbs the water's surface.
 
I think you are right in that there is not enough oxygen for the fish in your refugium. Most refugiums only turn over a few hundred gallons an hour.

Chris
 
I have my fuge fed from my return pump and throttle down however I have a peppermint shrimp pair and a domino damsel that call it home. Both have been down there for months with no issues.

raise you feed to the fuge so that it disturbs the waters surface or add an air pump and see if that cures the problem...
 
I had bryopsis start in my 40g fuge and make its way into the display (grrrr!?!?!), now I put a maxi jet in there to keep nuisance algae at bay. Seems to work fine, but it would also oxyginate the water enough for fish. Keep in mind the fish in there will eat your pods, the whole point of a refugium, to let pods build a good population.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12275091#post12275091 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by p4ck37p1mp
Keep in mind the fish in there will eat your pods, the whole point of a refugium, to let pods build a good population.

He's right, keeping fish in a "fuge" kind of defeats the purpose. It is supposed to be a "refuge" from predation.
 
Although you could put herbivores, sand sifting gobies or carnivores (triggers, etc). I thought about getting a clown trigger just because they're so evil and cool, I'd never ever put one in my reef.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12275178#post12275178 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by meschaefer
He's right, keeping fish in a "fuge" kind of defeats the purpose. It is supposed to be a "refuge" from predation.

I just have the fuge to keep my nitrates at 0. I don't do it for the pods. It's the algae that need protection, because my rabbitfish are pigs.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12275369#post12275369 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by u418936
I just have the fuge to keep my nitrates at 0. I don't do it for the pods. It's the algae that need protection, because my rabbitfish are pigs.

how does your porc puffer do in the reef tank? doesn't he eat the corals?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12275369#post12275369 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by u418936
I just have the fuge to keep my nitrates at 0. I don't do it for the pods. It's the algae that need protection, because my rabbitfish are pigs.

Not to get too caught up in semantics, but its not a fuge then. More of what used to be called an algae scrubber.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12275455#post12275455 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chimmike
how does your porc puffer do in the reef tank? doesn't he eat the corals?

He's a model citizen.

I put a small powerhead in my fuge to disturb the water's surface. Hopefully, it fixes things.
 
What kind of cardinals did you try? Did you order them or get them locally? How long did you have them before they died?
 
They're captive raised banggai cardinals. I've had them for two weeks. I got them at my LFS, which is really good and guarantees all of its livestock.
 
I have a hawkfish in there...he was in my DT and was causing all kinds of problems, very aggresive.....so I took him out (major pain, had to disrupt my whole tank !!!) because I couldnt add any other fish and put him in the fuge...had nothing else and didnt want to kill him....he has been there for months and is doing fine. My kids call the fuge "jail" now because thats where the bad fish go !!
 
ha my kid calls it the prisoner tank because I have a yellowtail damsel in the section that water enters, in front of the fuge.

Just added a big flame hawk to that section, too, now we have two prisoners.

I got some small hippo tangs and they're still in QT but I was thinking of putting my big Kole Tang in the fuge (caulerpa prolifera and chaeto). He's not big enough to demolish the caulerpa. Think that's all he'd eat? JUST the macroalgae?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12281674#post12281674 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by u418936
They're captive raised banggai cardinals. I've had them for two weeks. I got them at my LFS, which is really good and guarantees all of its livestock.

How many do you have left?

Banggai cardinals do not do well in groups. They will kill eachother off. I would expect you to be left with a pair that will live.
 
Yeah, and they are probably the easiest marine fish to rear (no larval stage, and they can take baby brine shrimp right from the beginning).
 
I would say its not because of your O2 levels but agression between the cardinals. Your macro actually produces a lot of O2 (hence the benifits of using a reverse lighting cycle to keep your pH stable). Even with a low turnover rate, the O2 level should not be much different between the fuge and display.
 
Back
Top